Month: July 2007

Inspite of living in Pune, a city with several picnic spots in its vicinity, we end up going places only once in say half a year!! One such trip happened last saturday, and needless to say, we had real fun!! (U can see that on the happy faces in the accompanying photograph, can’t u!!).

We started for Sinhagad, 12 of us, in a chakachak tempo-traveller at around 5:30 p.m. Passing through Chandni Chowk, Khadakvasla “chowpatty”, and numerous stories, fables and fairy tales about us, them, and Tanaji Malusare(The Marathi stalwart who became a martyr while capturing this fort from the Mughals), we finally reached the foot of Sinhagad. As our car inched forward via the very narrow road up Sinhagad, history came back to us in form of Tanaji, Kondhana, and the monitor lizard. Each of us tried to show off our historical knowledge!

Over time, we reached to the last point upto where vehicles could go. As we alighted from our car, we were instantly greeted with cries of “Jai Bhavani!! Jai Shivaji!!” from enthusiastic tourists. We started climbing, stopping only for posing for photographs, with the big beautiful valley as the backdrop or, standing on arches of gates as if “Yippee!!! We conquered it!!” hehe! 🙂 It was the perfect kind of weather: cool, windy, cloudy, but sans the drizzle. After we reached atop Sinhgad, there was another round of photographs, with different poses, (and slips, there was a lot of muck up there…).

And then, it was snacks time!! All of us hungry picnic-ers hogged on the yummmy Pithla-Bhakri-Kharda, Dahi and garam-garamKanda Bhaji. While we were gourmeting on the spread, we completely forgot, that it was getting dark, and all though it was almost full moon, the full moon would be shadowed by the thick monsoon clouds. When this fact finally dawned upon us(dawned is such an ironical phrase in this situation, right!! 🙂 hehehe!), we started off, assuring and scaring each other at the same time. 🙂
There were some really hilarious incidents on our way down, like we signalling our mobile lights to some unknown persons thinking that they were from our group, like some guys calling out to our group by saying “Aye Ganpat!!!” and our extra-enthu guys replying with “Daru La!!!”(for those uninformed, This is a famous line from a song in the bollywood flick ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’), like Diya* (* – names changed to protect privacy…LOL!!!) stepping into a puddle of water and everybody running towards her thinking she fell in there, like Rahul* crouching in the darkness and pouncing on Panna* and Kshama* and scaring them to the end of their wits, leaving them shaking and shivering till the end of the journey!!!!

And all in all, as u can clearly see from my post, we had a gala time!!! Enjoying the beautiful weather, and surrounded by your friends, what more can you ask for?? 🙂

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Was consoling a friend who was very depressed, and was giving him some tidbits of advice… Very spontaneously, I said something to him that amazed not only him, but me also….

While telling him to do this and that, I happened to say that “I know this is very easy for me to say, ‘coz it’s not happening to me; but then why would we need other people in our lives if we could deal with everything??” He looked up, and I looked up too… I had just created and quoted a valuable one-liner, out of the blue…. He smiled, the quote was a good break from the sermon i was giving him, and was sure worth a thought….and plus, it was a pleasant break from his depressed line of thinking, too!!

Seriously guys, man is a social animal, especially because he needs someone apart from himself, to show him the different perspectives of the multidimensional world. Any takes on this?

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Confused by the title people?? Actually its just my laziness to write 3 seperate reviews for the 3 pieces of work i read/watched of late…. So lets not beat around the bush and get straight to the point! 😉

John Grisham’s Summons is an ok-ok story abt Ray Atlee, a law professor having a celebrity judge as a father and a hopeless drug addict as a brother. When his very-much law abiding father passes away, Ray is startled to find 3 million bucks in cash at his house. Summons is a story about Ray’s quest to find out the truth about the money. Moderately paced and sufficiently interesting, the book does tend to drag towards the end, and the climax too is not so surprising, to say the least.

Rating: 2/5 readable. but not a must!

Die Hard is the fourth part of the previous 3 versions of Die Hard. Although I haven’t seen any of them, going by the fourth, I can say that they must’ve been fabulous pieces of work! Amazzing action sequences is the strongest point of the mvie, not to mention a decently engrossing plot. Die Hard 4 is a modern times thriller about a cyber geek, who creates havoc (FireCell or something, in the cyber lingo)in the United States by hacking into ALL the important systems and databases, and actually bringing people’s lives to a standstill; and how Bruce Willis (John McLane in the movie) with the help of a hacking wizkid fights him.

The director hasn’t taken much effort in avoiding cliches, and yeah cinematic liberty does get stretched at times(esp. in the sequence where an F17 chases Willis’ truck), but overall, the movie is a great entertainer!!

Rating: Green!

Piece of Cake is the first book written by Swati Kaushal, an MBA Graduate. It is a simple story about a modern girl, well-educated smart and independent, but single, who is confused about choosing between a sexy RJ who’s younger to her in age and a well settled celebrity neurologist, who doesn’t seem to be of this age. Not to forget the spin brought in by the literally cut-throat competition in the corporate world!

Entertaining, humourous, and contemporary, this novel surely makes for some good and light reading!

Rating: 3/5 Definitely Readable!

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When you are listening to a song, what is more important to you? The music or the lyrics? Well I have always been partial towards music.. I ‘ve always been more attentive to words only when recited without music, you know, poetry and stuff…

But our very own Hindi songs too(without which our bollywood movies would be incomplete, ofcourse) do have very meaningful lyrics at times. Just an attempt to list a few which caught my fancy…………..

1) Khul ke muskurale tu : Phir Milenge

This song is played in the background when the protagonist understands that she has contracted AIDS through her unfaithful partner, and decides to bravely lead her life, her disease and her past not withstanding.

Haven’t watched this movie, but had an audio cassete of this movie as a kid….found the song melodious so listened to it, now that I understand the lyrics and stuff, find it amazing and having so much insight.

This is the title song of the movie Rudali, based on the life of a tribe in Rajastan that earns its living by mourning at people’s deaths. They are especially invited by families when any member is about to die, as it is believed that deaths should be mourned as loudly as possible, for various reasons…